Manage your subscription

Quantum computing switches wavelengths

FUTURE networks of quantum computers will have to both store quantum information and move it from place to place. Doing both at once may be easier now that physicists have learned how to transfer information between photons that have different wavelengths.

Researchers already know how to store bits of quantum information – or “qubits” – in the states of atoms. Information can be recorded by making an atom absorb a photon, and this works best for photons of wavelength roughly 800 nanometres. But unfortunately, this wavelength isn’t very useful for transmitting information&colon; standard fibre-optic cables work best with wavelengths of …